Roominate from "Meh" to "Super, Amazing, Awesome!"

When the folks at Computer Gear gave us the Roominate Townhouse to try out I was less than impressed.  The single motor didn't interest the girls and the parts didn't seem to encourage them to create with their own ideas.  They made the town house and it sat for several weeks.  I told Computer Gear I wasn't so sure about this product.  The folks at Computer Gear gave us the Expansion Pack Set combined with the Hub.  Maria, Amalia, and Alyssa were very excited to get it out and start building. The additional parts and hub made this toy go from a "meh" to a "super, awesome, amazing!", paraphrased from one of the girls.

In the expansion pack the girls really liked the led light strip.  Maria exclaimed, "cool a push button", as she pulled it out of the box.   I liked that it came with a screwdriver to put the batteries in.  Each motor or LED light strip requires a connection to a battery pack that uses 2 AAA batteries, if you don't connect them to the hub.  The hub requires 3 AAA batteries, but can power the motors and light strips this is nice as you don't need quite so many batteries.  I also liked that the wires were color coded red and blue with nice sturdy connectors to create circuits.

The Roominate hub added an additional play dimension that the kids really liked.  The hub allows the kids to change the speed and direction of the motors and to blink the lights.  "Blinking lights are so awesome!" was Maria's comment when she built a custom house and was outfitting it.  Maria did break out the tape to put the lights up in her house.

Maria tried to make a car with 2 motors.  After many engineering attempts she decided that she could not figure out how to make a car with out wheels and axles work well.  It was quite interesting watch her run through all her ideas on how to engineer a car.

After a nearly a week on our living room floor here are some conclusions about this toy.  Amalia and Alyssa really liked the girls and the critters that came with the sets.  They also liked the showcase app that gave them ideas of what they could build.  All 3 of them spent several hours on a very hot day making and playing with a shaved ice stand, using the round connecting disks for money.  They had a house, a school, a library, lots of furniture and played very creatively.  Maria would normally be bored playing little people house but with the addition of the electronics she thoroughly enjoyed it.